You may already know this story; I did not and am always on the lookout for creative solutions to problems in education. Thanks to John Thorsen, Asst. Head at Asheville School for posting a query to some of his PLN about major issues facing education, I cyber-met Bill Bugg, head of Thetford Academy in Vermont. [...]
According to one large vendor in the room, "Poway is in the leading 1% of districts nationwide who are looking at this." According to several others, "90% of the bits and pieces are there; no one has put it all together." According to almost all the vendors, "We can't make this kind of investment with [...]
As many of you know, I formally resigned my position at Francis Parker School this spring after almost a decade and a half in a variety of leadership positions. I hope to continue my association with Parker, which my great aunt and uncle founded 100 years ago, in informal ways. For now, and following on [...]
One of my key areas of focus in the next year is the financial implication of innovation in our schools. Relative to even two years ago, there is an enormous agreement to the proposition that rapid global changes really do require schools to adopt a vastly more innovative approach, or risk irrelevancy. Actual implementation of [...]
We have all had good ideas that have failed to take root. A Tweet from Jamie Baker today reminded me of a GREAT idea that I had that was too radical at the time, but maybe others can take advantage of it. If you are planning a campus building project, big or small, what about [...]
Sam Folk-Williams, Knowledge Program Manager at Red Hat, a major enterprise computing company, wrote a standout piece on leadership for the Management Innovation Exchange. Co-authored by Jim Stikeleather and Michele Zanini, the paper proposes a “dynamic system for measuring an individual’s ‘natural leadership’. They outline three broad areas of leadership that occur largely outside of, [...]
Finally, we can increase the number and use of computing devices while reducing our classroom technology expense. This has been a promise we have been chasing for more than a decade and it is here, but only if we exert some discipline. Many of us are sharing thoughts about why a 1:1 technology environment will [...]
This morning San Diego Unified School District announced they will buy and distribute $15 million in iPads next year. This follows implementation of a district-wide netbook rollout in middle schools three years ago, all paid for by bond proceeds approved by taxpayers. In the article in this morning’s San Diego Union Tribune district officials describe [...]
Polly LaBarre in her MIX blog reports on the incredibly flat management structure at Morning Star, a highly successful major American food grower and processor. All employees in the company develop and sign a Colleague Letter of Understanding (CLOU) in which each person defines their personal job outline and how it relates to the organizational [...]
In an interview with Steve Denning, innovation author Gary Hamel talks about the role of passion in separating successful companies from also-rans in a fast-moving business cycle. K-12 education is in the middle of such a cycle, driven by both dramatic changes in connective technologies and global economies that have significantly strained traditional educational goals. [...]